The top four spellers from each school in the league will compete in the event, which has no connection with the state or national spelling bees.

Instead, the league spelling bee is similar to a league athletic competition with students vying for the top spot in the league.

Spellers from Lansing, Piper, Perry-Lecompton, Basehor-Linwood, Monticello Trails, Lexington Trails and Tonganoxie will participate. Monitcello Trails and Lexington Trails are in the De Soto school district.

In the first round, 28 students each in the seventh and eighth grade will take part in a written competition. Those students consist of the top four placers at each of the seven schools’ spelling bees.

The top six spellers will move on to the oral round.

Last year, Tonganoxie had a speller finish second in the seventh grade KVL bee. Sara Swaim was the runner-up last season. She will compete this year in eighth grade as the No. 2 Tonganoxie speller.

Alex Bartels was this year’s Tonganoxie Junior High seventh-grade spelling bee winner, while Carissa Nott was the top speller in eighth grade.

The two students competed at the Leavenworth County Spelling Bee on Feb. 3 in Leavenworth.

But it was another Tonganoxie student — Elliott Brest, a seventh-grader at Genesis Christian Academy — who won the county bee. He will compete at the state spelling bee March 25 in Topeka.